Ahhh, Blake's Seven... When it was airing on a local PBS station here in the U.S. in the late '80s, something happened to the continuity of episodes; the arc built up to some major crisis and then suddenly the episodes available to the station were months or years later and I never did follow the development after that. If I ever get the complete series (assuming it is available) it will be essentially new to me again because of this and I certainly would enjoy it.
Michael
Hi!
I can't say that I've made a habit of watching the series, and my understanding of it is highly fractured (being as the PBS station in the area seems to jump all over the place episode and time-wise) but I really enjoyed the episodes with Christopher Eccleston (sp? IIRC) as the doctor...somewhat because of the character but also because the quality of sets and effects seemed to be so much better.
Neither here nor there...just my $0.02.
William
"Arfa Daily" ...
Sadly, I haven't been off the North American continent. :-P
Yeah. But perhaps we can go to another European base, and have easy access to Britain. We can dream.
Never heard of that one.
I wondered WTF your nick meant!
:-)
Natalie
He was good, and had the makings of a very good Doctor, but bowed out after just one series, which left a bit of a bad taste with fans. However, if you liked him as the Doctor, try to track down some of the latest episodes with David Tennant. You'll definitely like him. As a measure of what a good actor he is, you might be amazed to learn that he is actually a broad Scot, when talking normally, but for the part of the Doctor, manages to do a really very good and consistent English estuary accent.
Arfa
Oh, Blake's Seven ... I never missed a single episode ... The very last one of season 3 was so sad when the Liberator passed through that cloud of corrosive gas, and the ship was eaten alive by it. I nearly cried, big and ugly as I was, when the ships computer, Zen, finally admitted defeat to Avon and told him that it was sorry that it was no longer able to repair the ship, and closed itself down with its voice failing. I think that was the only time that the computer ever referred to itself as "I". I think that was supposed to be the last ever episode, but it was resurrected for a fourth season with a rather revised concept, and a different ship, as I recall. Pony as it was, with the shaking scenery, and Servalan leering her sexy way through most scenes, I truly loved that series ...
Going back to Doctor Who, I saw an interview with Tom Baker a few years back, and he said that although he had loved every minute of working on the show, it had wrecked his acting career, because after leaving it, he was so associated with being the Doctor, he just could not get any mainstream acting work, and apart from a few fairly minor parts, has spent the remainder of his career in a backwater of voiceover and other similar industry-related work, which is a bit of a shame really.
When I was in TV repair, as an apprentice, we had a copy, on Philips N1500 format, no less, of an in-house BBC Christmas tape, which purported to have been made by "VT Shift 3". It was very funny, and had many out-takes from programmes, long before these were popular as TV programmes in their own right. One such featured Tom Baker as Doctor Who, propped up on the floor against the Tardis' console. Robot dog K9 trundles in. "What's the situation ? Give me a prognosis,K9 ! " barks Tom. "Insufficient data, master ..." says K9. "No, you never f**king know when it's important, do you ...?", says Tom !
In another, taken from Blake's Seven, Servalan is behind a desk, and a bunch of her black guards come running in, brandishing their storm trooper ray guns. One of the guys slips on the studio floor, and takes a couple more with him. They slide straight into a wall, and bring it down on top of themselves.
At another point, a spoof weather forcast is being given, voice only over the BBC logo, like they sometimes used to do at night before closedown (remember closedown ??) It concludes with "And just remember that red sky at night, simply means that your auto-chroma is out of range ..." It then cuts to the BBC TV Centre roof, where a very young Bill Giles (weatherman) is standing holding his jacket collar up, and someone off-camera pouring water on his head. He stands there and just announces "It's pissing down out here ..."
Later on, there is a forthcoming-programme voice-only link piece which goes "Later tonight, the intrepid time lord, Doug Who, has an encounter with the Shed Elevenites !"
Clearly, this is some kind of meaningless ( to outsiders ) in-house BBC joke, and at the time you just dismiss it. However, when the 'production' finally gets to the end, there are about 10 minutes of slow-rolling credits. Absolutely everybody gets a mention with entries like 'Take away curries fetched by' , 'Chinagraph pencils sharpened by' , 'VT helical head maintenance by' and so on. The final credit passes up and off the screen, leaving a blank raster that persists for perhaps 5 seconds. Then a final piece of text rolls up the screen, simply saying "Doug Who?". Now that is priceless !
One of the credits read 'Dancers - The Memorex Head Cloggers' Which I always thought was a very clever bit of double meaning ( "cloggers" is a slang term for dancers in the UK, from clog shoes ).
Sadly, this tape disappeared many years ago. I bet some old BBC engineer somewhere has still got a copy, though. It must be 25 years since I last saw it, and I would dearly love to see it again. You shouldn't have mentioned Blake's Seven, Martin. You're never going to shut me up now ...
Arfa
That'd be cool. And now w/the EU, once in at point of entry, no more passport/customs hassles. And except for the UK which is clinging to its pounds & pence, no more currency changing, either. Someday I want to take the Eurostar train from London to Paris - or vice-versa. Or round-trip. ;-) City center to city center in under 3 hours. Works for me. :-)
If you ever do get to Europe - my advice: go down to the Mediterranean - its colors are *beautiful* - 3 shades of aqua/turquoise. So-o-o-o soothing to just look at... I hadn't realized how gorgeous it was going to be (I was in Nice, & along the coast to Monaco). Rivals Bermuda's waters, & those I've seen in pics of the Caribbean. I was there in mid-April - sunny, but not hot - just right (IMO): mid-70's.
If you get to the U.K. - go everywhere you can! Really diverse areas, for a smallish place. ;-)
Cathy
P.S. And they really *do* say "Ta", & "Thanks, ducks", & Ta, love". ;-)
Cathy
And "Thanks me duck" and "cheers luvvy" - And that's in the areas where you can understand the people ! You should try Tyneside, or Cornwall, or parts of Liverpool and Norfolk, and the Scots ! Well even I can't understand some of them, and I'm born and bred here ...
Arfa
"Cathy F."
Well, if we get stationed in Europe, we'll be there for all seasons, but I doubt there is anyplace in Europe that's more miserably hot than Florida's climate. Cold doesn't faze me at all - I love it!
You're preaching to the converted, toots.
Natalie
"Cathy F."
Haven't been to Britain, but have certainly chatted online with plenty of them; enough to know *that* anyway.
:-)
Natalie
"Arfa Daily" ...
Speaking of regional expressions, it's always disconcerting to see what British TV shows do to portray Americans. It's quite painful (they rarely have a convincing American "accent"), but even more excruciating is the way the "Americans" act. I truly hope that's not what the rest of the world really thinks we're like!
LOL that's me with some mid-westerners. Damned cryptic sometimes, doncha new. New Englanders can lose me when they speak too quickly.
Natalie
Yeah, until I went to the UK, I thought that was probably mostly tourist hype. Nope. :-)
And that's in the areas where you
On the way north from Torquay was in a train carriage w/a man who was going up to Blackpool - don't know if that's where he was from, but I just did a lot of nodding of my head & smiling. ;-) Friendly, chatty man, but I understood maybe 1/4 - 1/3 of what he was saying. I think why I had trouble understanding him was that he dropped his consonants a lot.
First time I was in Edinburgh... at Waverly Station I asked for "an orange soda" at the cafeteria. The guy behind the counter kept asking me if I wanted it still. I had no clue what he was on about. Finally had to ask him just what he was asking me. (Me: thinking, "Yeah, I still want it!) "Well, do you want it still or do you want it fizzy?!", he asked. Oh!.... But I had assumed that by using the word "soda" that he would know I wanted a carbonated drink... guess not. Had to ask the guys at the hotel's front desk to repeat themselves a few times, too - didn't always catch it the first time around.
Was in Cornwall (mostly on the north coast) - no probs there. Other than "eating weeds" - the super-narrow roads & hedgerows - when the car window was open. And in Yorkshire (in the York/Harrogate/Thirsk area) - same thing. OTOH, re: the latter - had already read all of James Herriot's/Alf Wight's books. ;-) And have watched lots of BBC shows on PBS here - probably helps when listening to the various accents.
Cathy
I'm not as crazy about the snow (shovel, shovel, shovel...) & cold NE winters as I used to be, but OTOH I can not *imagine* living in the SE. Way too hot & humid for moi. And I do like the 4 very distinct seasons here.
;-)
Cathy
Makes sense. But I first went to the UK in '78 (my sister was doing a semester of college in London), so didn't have any on-line experience w/ British friends yet.
Cathy
"Cathy F." ...
Sure, rub it in.
*snip*Natalie
Well, that's a bit of an interesting one. I visit America several times a year, so have a pretty reasonable idea of the way Americans behave when at home, and I actually think that it *is* pretty much as (over)portrayed, which is confident, loud, a little brash perhaps, but the thing is, it doesn't come over that way when you are there, because of the sheer size and scale of the place, and everything in it. Sort of 'being big, in a big place', if you will.
However, if you think about it, American TV, and the American people, do much the same to Brits, in reverse. I bet if you try to imagine a British person, not having been here, and having only TV as a reference, you come up with the very conservative stiff upper lip, plum-in-the-mouth-newsreader-accent Basil Fawlty stereotype. And I'm sure that many of us probably come across that way when we are in your country. But if you asked those people about that, like you, they would probably be horrified that you perceived them in such a way. I guess that also, you are basing your view of our view of Americans, on TV programmes that are often made to be, if not full-on comedies, then at least amusing, and that is where another huge difference between us comes in. These TV programmes often employ a 'lampooning' style of humour, which appeals to Brits, so the 'archetypal' American that might appear is deliberately 'blown up' into the brash, loud clown, for just that purpose. Think Fawlty Towers - the Waldorf Salad episode.
By the same token, British characters may also be overblown to the same purpose. Again, think The Major or Basil himself, in Fawlty Towers. Whilst such people do genuinely exist, they are actually a rarity, but many Americans that I know, expect all British people to be like that, because they have seen things like Fawlty Towers, and the similarly archetypal 'Brit' that the American TV people put into their comedy shows.
Does any of that make any sense at all ?
Arfa
Hot we can do. It's just not so miserably humid ... Oh, and most of Europe has only just heard the words 'air conditioner', so you better be able to do hot with no relief ! British Summers, when we get a good one, are really pleasant. Temperature 70 to 80. Clear blue skies. Gentle south westerly breeze, not too much humidity. Sometimes though, it can be very rainy for weeks on end. Last year was a good example of that. The weather can be very variable also. Because it is a relatively small island, a change of wind direction can alter the temperature by 20 degrees in a day, and it can go from a bright clear morning to a dull, heavy and overcast afternoon, with threatening thunderheads, in the space of a couple of hours - bit like Florida, really !!
Arfa
These TV programmes often
Ah, yes.. ;-)
Yes. More Jerry Leadbetter's (of Good Neighbors AKA The Good Life) than Basil's. Hopefully not as many Margo's - or Hyacinth Bucket's -as there are Barbara Good's. ;-)
Cathy
"Arfa Daily" ...
You're not helping... :-)
Right, but even the dramas that have "American" characters seem to go nuts with the stereotype at times. Such as "Dead Again" (terrible movie, but Kenneth Branagh did an *excellent* American dialect - Emma Thompson absolutely sucks at it - both there and in "Primary Colors") When Branagh was the American character, he was much more aggressive, loutish; absolutely no class. It was depressing. LOL
Absolutely. As a black woman, I know all too well that the media in general tends to overdo any archetype, but I haven't yet seen a subtle American in a British production. Maybe I've missed some?
Natalie
"Arfa Daily" ...
But I also love rain, so that works, too.
I was definitely born into the *wrong* climate.
Natalie
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